Texas Senate Race Update for March 29, 2012

  • Ted Cruz won the endorsement of Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, which is a terrific pickup for him. He joins Jim DeMint and Rand Paul among sitting conservative Republican senators who have endorsed Cruz.
  • Cruz appeared (again) on the Mark Levin show:

  • Cruz will also be at a King Street Patriots rally in Houston on April 3.
  • Another week, another batch of business group endorsements for David Dewhurst, this time from the Independent Bankers Association of Texas
  • …as well as the Texas Apartment Association
  • …and the the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (probably more popular than bankers or apartment owners).
  • Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones says that David Dewhurst is a moderate by Republican standards: “Frequently used his powers of agenda control to help pass legislation opposed by the most conservative members of the Republican delegation. In addition, the best estimate of Dewhurst’s location along the liberal-conservative continuum which dominates voting in the Texas Senate suggests he is significantly less conservative than approximately one-third of the Republican delegation, particularly conservative outliers Brian Birdwell of Granbury and Dan Patrick of Houston….for Republicans located in the party’s centrist and moderate conservative wings, Dewhurst is likely to be ‘just right.'” It’s an interesting statistical analysis, and conforms to my own opinion of Dewhurst: Not a RINO, but not a true movement conservative, either.
  • The Dewhurst campaign is being more than a bit silly (again) in trying to link Cruz to George Soros because some of the other 1,300 lawyers at the same international law firm have done work for Soros. I’ve already debunked this. It’s actually fairly embarrassing that they’re still trying to make this argument.
  • Tom Leppert was endorsed by Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey.
  • Craig James picks up a deep-pocketed backer in Walmart heir Alice Walton.
  • Both James and Cruz get some love in this Wall Street Journal piece.
  • Let’s give James props for putting this on his Facebook page, since it did make me smile:

  • There’s going to be a televised Senate debate April 13.
  • KERA interviewed the four candidates:

  • Want to watch a 38 minute interview with Democratic candidate Paul Sadler? Me neither, but I run a full-service blog:

    A Conversation with Paul Sadler from texastribune on Vimeo.

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